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Prevention is the best strategy
- A landscape composed mainly of species resistant to Japanese beetles can minimize their presence and reduce damage on susceptible plants. Luckily, there are many garden-worthy choices that do not attract the beetles and are highly resistant to attack.
- Try to remove attractants like fallen, diseased, or prematurely ripening fruit; weedy attractants such as bracken fern, elder, multiflora rose, Indian mallow, poison ivy, smartweed, and wild grape; and susceptible landscape species.
- Because stressed plants are especially susceptible, feed and water to promote good health.
Plant Susceptibility
The landscape plants below are exceptionally resistant or susceptible to feeding by adult Japanese beetles. For information on gradations of resistance in woody species, see Relative Susceptibility of Woody Landscape Plants to Japanese Beetle.
| Very Resistant | Very Susceptible |
|---|---|
| Common boxwood Common fig Common lantana Common persimmon Common sweetshrub Cypress, False cypress Evergreen holly Flowering dogwood Forsythia Juniper Lilac Mockorange Mountain laurel PG, Smooth hydrangeas Pinxterbloom azalea Purple beautyberry Red maple Red mulberry Redbud Saucer magnolia Sweetbay magnolia Tulip poplar Winter honeysuckle Yew | Apple, Crabapple American mountain ash Apricot Arrowwood viburnum Baldcypress Black walnut Bottlebrush buckeye Buttonbush Carolina silverbell Cherry Common spicebush Crapemyrtle Elm Flowering quince Grape Highbush blueberry Japanese kerria Japanese maple Peach, Plum Rose Rose-of-Sharon Sassafras Summersweet Virginia creeper Willow |
| Perennials Very Resistant | Very Susceptible |
|---|---|
| Aster Beebalm Black-eyed susan Blanketflower Bleeding heart Butterfly weed Catmint Columbine Coralbell Daylily False indigo Ferns Foxglove Gayfeather Hellebore Hosta Iris Lily Obedient plant Ornamental onion, Chive Pink Poppy Sedum Spurge Tickseed Toad lily Turtlehead Veronica Violet Yarrow | Asparagus Evening primrose Hardy hibiscus Hollyhock Japanese anemone Joe Pye weed |
| Annuals Very Resistant | Very Susceptible |
|---|---|
| Ageratum Begonia Caladium Celosia Cosmos Impatiens Ornamental kale Lantana Marigold Nasturtium Nicotiana Pansy Ornamental pepper Petunia Portulaca Snapdragon Verbena | Canna Dahlia Hibiscus Marigold Morning glory Zinnia |
